Navigating Neuropsychology 138| Executive Functions in the Developing Brain – A Conversation With Dr. Adele Diamond
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Mar 1, 2024 
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Task Impurity Makes Pure Inhibition Tests Rare
- Most inhibitory-control tests require working memory, making pure measures rare.
- Diamond explained tasks like Stroop, Simon, Flanker each carry different loads and suggested mixed blocks increase difficulty and ecological realism.
Prefer Real World Tasks Over Arbitrary Lab Rules
- Use ecologically valid EF tests rather than arbitrary lab rules when possible.
- Diamond recommends cooking-style tasks and culturally appropriate measures that reflect real-world demands and reduce experimenter-driven cues.
Mild Social Stress Harms Executive Functions
- Even mild social-evaluative stress impairs executive functions for most people.
- Diamond challenged the human applicability of Yerkes-Dodson and cited genotype interactions but concluded stress generally harms PFC-mediated EFs.